Explained: Which photo to keep and which photos to delete in three simple steps

How to choose which photos to keep when you have taken loads!

Picture the scene.  It’s a glorious day of sunshine and you are out with the kids when suddenly your little one manages to ride his bike all on his own.  Fabulous!  You’ve been waiting for this moment for ages!  Instantly, you grab your phone and take a number of photos, snapping happy just hoping that there will be one half decent in there.  Shouting ‘look at Mummy’ or ‘stop just there’ is bound to help the process!  Since the rise of the mobile phone and digital technology, we are blessed to be able to take unlimited photos.   Whether you have pressed that button twenty times or managed to secure in one continuous burst, you now have to go through them to pick which is the best one to keep, a difficult process at times.

Let me share with you how I do it!

Personally, I believe that it’s totally subjective how you decide on the best photo to keep but if you have a rough process to follow each time, it can help.  This is the simple, three step process that I follow:

1. Delete the glaringly obvious rubbish ones. Look for movement, blinks or anything else that means the photo just doesn’t work.  As you can imagine with the photo below, there was lots of blinks and movement!
2. Remove any that look like they are duplicates. The more you take, the more likely you are to have duplicates.  Train your eyes to look quickly and assess a lack of difference.
3. Review what is left. Does this leave you with a few to choose from? In reality at this point I usually take the following into account which is where I am usually at:
   1. The first photo is usually a keeper. Why? Intuition led me to take the photo in the moment so it must mean something.  In the case below this was a first photo!
   2. A middle photo is considered. There has likely to have been some movement, expression change that I have recorded.
   3. The last photo is also a strong contender. By this stage I have reviewed the composition in my head, tweaked a few elements and built on the intuition from photograph one

It’s at this point that I become ruthless and pick one.  Just one to keep.  That’s it, done!

I promise, the more you follow this process, the easier it is to decide which photos to keep and which to bin!  Give it a go and discover what happens.

Other blog posts you might find useful:

5 cheap and cheerful ways to showcase your photos

The secret to keeping your phone memory free

Take five minutes to read this now – you must do it